Mick Mulvaney's "compassion" justification for slashing Meals on Wheels isn't going over so well

FRIDAY, MAR 17, 2017 07:50 AM EDT

Mick Mulvaney’s “compassion” justification for slashing Meals on Wheels isn’t going over so well

Mulvaney's justifications for taking food out of people's mouths are met with ridicule

MATTHEW ROZSA

Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget said Thursday that the impending cuts to Meals on Wheels were “probably one of the most compassionate things we can do.” Mulvaney tried to justify his statement by arguing that the administration is “trying to focus on both the recipients of the money and the folks who give us the money in the first place. And I think it’s fairly compassionate to go to them and say, ‘Look, we’re not gonna ask you for your hard-earned money, anymore, single mother of two in Detroit . . . unless we can guarantee to you that that money is actually being used in a proper function.'”

The outrage was swift.

“Who in the hell zeroes out Meals on Wheels?” wrote Charles P. Pierce of Esquire. “Who decides that a program that spends $3 million to help volunteers feed the elderly and infirm in their communities is something that the country can no longer afford? Who are the men in the meetings who make this kind of call? What are their names? Trot them out so the country knows who they are. C’mon, David Brooks, find out who they are and explain why National Greatness Conservatism has a problem with starving elderly shut-ins.”

Jordan Weissmann of Slate was even more scathing, writing that “honestly, I would have more respect for the man if he’d stood up on stage with a stock pot and said the administration had decided that the poor should be boiled into bone broth. At least then he’d have the courage of his convictions.”

It doesn’t help Mulvaney’s case that Meals on Wheels is a very effective program.

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http://www.salon.com/2017/03/17/mick-mulvaneys-compassion-justification-for-slashing-meals-on-wheels-isnt-going-over-so-well/